Khan: UNC siphoned drainage dollars

WORKS and Transport Minister Franklin Khan yesterday charged that the former government’s decision to divert US$25 million from plans to develop a comprehensive national drainage plan (CNDP) to its “Water for All” campaign was one of the major contributors to flooding in Trinidad and Tobago today. Speaking in Parliament, the minister recalled that in 1994 the PNM government signed an agreement with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Develop-ment (IBRD) for a US$25 million loan for the implementation of a water sector institutional strengthening project.

“This loan was allocated to the preparation of a CNDP, which was to be implemented by the Ministry of Works and Transport,” he explained. Khan also stated the CDNP included feasibility studies on the Caroni, Caparo and South Oropouche Rivers. The minister evoked rumblings in the Opposition benches when he declared, “During the 1995 to 2001 administration (of the UNC), the loan funds allocated to CNDP, were removed from the Ministry of Works and Transport and given to WASA as part of that government’s policy of Water for All by 2000. “As a consequence, the CNDP was abandoned by the (UNC) government in 1998 at a point in its implementation which would have allowed engineering studies to be completed on the major river basins throughout the country. 

“This Government has therefore been called upon to undertake the task of completing this work that began in 1994 and unfortunately terminated.” Khan was taunted by the Opposition when he added that the records would show the PNM was proactive in the way it addressed perennial flooding woes in Trinidad and Tobago. Khan added that Government had a three phase approach (short, medium and long-term) towards tackling flooding in TT and outlined each phase in detail for the benefit of parliamentarians. At Thursday’s post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall, Khan announced that Government had approved a $100 million programme to deal with flooding in North, East, Central and South Trinidad.